Sunday, 17 May 2015

HoD: Merchant.... Great name for a band, makes me think doom
merchant or riff merchant. Given that you guys are a fairly new band, at least
to my knowledge on the live scene anyhow, please introduce yourselves and let
us know a bit of the history of how all this came together...

Wilson: Ben, Nick and
I got together mid last year with the idea of doing a heavy, uncompromising
band where we play exactly the kind of music we want to play. We'd all played
together in a band, Rainbird, before so it was pretty easy working together
from the get go.

Ben: We are all good mates and have been playing music with
each other since we were teenagers, and all in the same band at one point or
another. We had a lot of the music nutted out by the start of the year but were
sans vox. Mirgy came along a few months ago, and it honestly only took one
practice for us to realise he was the dude to 'sing'. We looked at what had
been written really objectively, as we had no vocal patterns in mind when we
wrote them, and took it from there. There weren't a lot of changes to the
songs, Mirgy just did his thing.

HoD: How would you describe your sound?

Wilson: A lot of people have mentioned Graves At Sea as a
band with a similar sound – which is really cool to hear and I can agree. In my
mind, it's somewhere between Graves at Sea, YOB, Dopesmoker-esque 12th fret
worship and early High on Fire. I feel weird mentioning all those dudes in the
same breath as us, as it probably has no basis in reality...

Ben: Yeah I would agree, it’s pretty difficult to describe,
especially to people who are still laughing at the fact that there is a silly
sounding genre known as ‘Doom Metal’. But yeah, I generally prefer to use
broader words that can be interpreted differently, so that people can form
ideas themselves and then eventually join the dots when they can actually hear
our music.

HoD: Seeing your debut gig you played three tracks, around
about 40 minutes all up roughly - all of them twisted, low, slow, epic riff
adventures. Do you have more tracks up your sleeve or under construction
currently?

Wilson: That's it for now. We just got out of that embryonic
stage where you're trying to build a set list, so all of our time has been
spent on getting onto a stage and getting the music in front of people. Now
that we've done that, it’s back in the writing phase. We've got heaps of riffs
and heaps of ideas about what kind of music we want to create so now it's just
getting that all pieced together. Easier said than done, however.

Ben: Yeah we are pretty eager to start getting our name out
there a bit now and start to play some shows now that we have a medium length
set ready to go. Which is awesome so now we can combine our writing with
performing and start to operate like a real band?

HoD: You have the
track 'Seismic' up on Bandcamp at the moment, a live demo to give people the
vibe of the band. What plans do you have in store for Merchant for the
remainder of 2015 and beyond?

Wilson: A physical release is definitely the big goal before
the end of the year. How long it is or what songs feature on it remain to be
seen, the writing process will hopefully guide us and solidify what we want to
go forward with. Ideally, plenty more shows too.

Ben: It would be awesome to start playing some shows with
the more established bands such as Watchtower, Horsehunter, Yanomamo only to
name a couple, and yeah just to get our name out there, build a little fan base
and fill our head with delusions of grandeur, haha.

HoD: Do you have some gigs coming up you'd like to tell us
about?

Wilson: We're playing with Frozen Planet 1969, Borrachero
and Olmeg at The Tote upstairs on the 22/5.

HoD: Thanks heaps for your time guys, and all the best with
the band. Will catch you guys on stage soon no doubt.

Wilson: Thanks to you too, Hand (if that is your real name).
Cheers for supporting the local scene and cheers for programming a crushing
radio station day in, day out.

Ben: Yeah it’s absolutely awesome to see how much support
there is in this little scene, and it’s all cause of legends like you Hando!
Cheers!

Not at all - it's all thanks to the creative talent of
people such as yourselves.

Get along to the gig on the 22nd of May at The Tote in
Melbourne, or check out the band at their Facebook and Bandcamp pages.

Thursday, 7 May 2015

Over the course of the last few years here in Australia
there has been a mighty surge of bands bringing high quality heavy – Clagg, Whitehorse,
Horsehunter, Lizzard Wizzard, WatchTower, Motherslug, Holy Serpent, TTTDC, Sons
of the Ionian Sea, The Ruiner,Yanomamo,
Sumeru, Agonhymn, Cement Pig… And this is just the tip of the iceberg, the list
goes on and on. Exciting times for the bands and the punters here, and that’s
an understatement.

A few weeks ago a new band on the scene in Melbourne called
Merchant played their debut gig. A whole slew of diverse bands were on the
bill, amongst them the bluesy stoner rock grit of Elbrus and popular locals
Holy Serpent riding the wave of their RidingEasy Records release. Needless to
say a decent size crowd was in attendance, but I doubt many were expecting to
be sledgehammered by Merchant….

Right from the word go it was dirty, low, demolition
riffing. Real, visceral, in your face…Within the first minute I knew this band wasn’t just going to be around
town making up the numbers, these dudes had that same immediate kick to the
face feel that everyone took notice of when Horsehunter first started gigging
around town.

“The Earth will shake when it hears my VOIIIIICE!” was the
lyric over the opening madness of ‘Seismic’. And it felt like the ground was
opening up right then and there. This seemed like anything but a band playing
its first gig, these guys were on fire from the outset. For the sake of a
reference point, think Yob, Suma, Graves at Sea….

On to what we have before us here for you all to check out.
Merchant have just put a live demo recording of the track “Seismic” on
Bandcamp.Clocking in at 9:36 this has
plenty of twists and turns,sludging its
way forth with low riffs and potent, abrasive vocals delivered with evil
intent. The drums could sound more balanced in the mix but hey, this is a live
demo so it’s easy to look past such things. What is most impressive here is the songwriting – Seismic
truly kicks ass in that department – and Merchant’s demolishing live
performance. A mountain of potential and promise here.

“A taste of what’s to come. Be prepared for some
sludgy, black and psychedelic brain lubrication” is the message from Merchant
on their Bandcamp page. No doubt in my mind that these dudes will unleash a
devastating array of music in the future. Have a listen and I reckon you’ll
pick up on the vibe here too. Definitely a band to keep your eye on.